The Illusion in Atheism + A Meaningful Life

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Since a good friend chose to stop-believing, the action (or is it a non-action) launched me into research. Obviously, all research begins and ends with wikipedia, youtube, and google. I began watching videos of debates between the religious and non-believing. Dawkins, Hitchens, and Smith. Their thoughts inundated my worldview.

There was an interesting dichotomy that caught my interest while watching a debate with Richard Dawkins. He was asked the question: “If there is no god, does one’s life have meaning?”

Dawkins responded, “Of course our lives have meaning.”

But does it?

However, let me reframe the question a different way: if a person who chooses to believe in a god is simply exercising myth and fantasy, why does choosing to believe life has meaning any different of a construct?

Again, I’m not a philosopher nor well-versed in all things philosophy, but I think I do make an interesting point.

I understand the argument that there is not scientific evidence to support a grand deity. I get that. I really do.

However, is there any more scientific evidence to support there is meaning to life?

If I live an awesome life, have all the resources I could ever want, help a bunch of people along the way, and then I die…so what? I’m dead. Eventually I’m forgotten. The universe moves on to its own impending end.

What is the meaning in all of this?

To say that life is beautiful in and of itself is a subjective statement, not an objective statement. There is not any scientific evidence to “support” that something is beautiful and meaningful. Any findings would simply be subject to the subjective nature of the individual.

For instance, I don’t find anything beautiful about living a life that eventually concludes with my death and end of consciousness. However, Dawkins does find the idea beautiful. This is a subjective issue, not an objective issue.

Furthermore, let’s say I live my life as the shittiest person I can be, I live my life for my own personal fulfillment, help no one, and then I die and my consciousness ceases. In time I’m forgotten. People move on. Then the universe meets its own end.

Therefore, whether I live a selfless or selfish life, the outcome is the same: the end of my consciousness and the end of the universe.

So my concluding question is my rephrased question: if a person who chooses to believe in a god is simply exercising myth and fantasy, why does choosing to believe life has meaning any different of a construct?

My conclusion is this: for a person of non-belief to choose to believe there is a meaning to life is no different than the religious who choose to believe in the fantasy of a god.